May 8, 2008
Clemson, SC – Fifty-five Clemson student-athletes, including basketball captain Cliff Hammonds and football captains Cullen Harper and Michael Hamlin, will receive diplomas during graduation ceremonies at Littlejohn Coliseum on Friday. There will be two graduation sessions, one at 9:30 a.m. and one at 2:30 p.m.
It will be a landmark day for Hammonds, who will receive his degree in the same facility where he received many cheers while leading the Clemson men’s basketball team for the last four years. Hammonds had a double major in architecture and psychology, and is the first Clemson scholarship men’s basketball player to earn a degree in architecture.
Hammonds will be joined by fellow seniors Sam Perry and Matt Morris on Friday. Perry will earn his degree in sociology and Morris will earn his degree in marketing. It will be the second time in three years that three Clemson men’s basketball players have graduated on the same day. Hammonds was the recipient of the Skip Prosser Award as the top ACC student-athlete in men’s basketball this past year. He is also a finalist for the Arthur Ashe Award, which will be presented on May 29 in New York.
Harper and Hamlin are two of the 12 Clemson football players who will receive degrees on Friday. While both are graduating, both will be back for another season with the Clemson football team. Both were second-team All-ACC players on the field this past year when they led the Tigers to a 9-4 record and a final top 25 ranking. Mark Buchholz and Jimmy Maners are two more Clemson football players who will graduate on Friday, but will return to the gridiron for a final year of eligibility in 2008. Clemson will actually have five players on the 2008 roster who already have degrees, as Akeem Robinson graduated this past December, but will be on the team in 2008.
Three members of Clemson’s 2007 ACC Champion volleyball team will receive their undergraduate degrees on Friday. That list includes Laura Boozer, Sue Eckman and Leslie Mansfield. Eckman is one of four student-athletes who were recently named to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society who will receive diplomas on Friday. The others are Lizzy Jennings (rowing), Matt Balderston (men’s swimming), and Maners. Balderston also just recently won an NCAA Postgraduate scholarship.
Other prominent Clemson student-athletes who will graduate on Friday include baseball catcher Doug Hogan, one of Clemson’s top home run hitters in recent years, five-time All-ACC track athlete Matt Clark, and women’s tennis athlete Carol Salge, who recently won MVP honors at the ACC Tournament, leading Clemson to the league title.
December 8, 2024
